Toyota Australia appeals order to compensate buyers over fault

The Australian subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation appealed a Federal Court decision in a class-action case that ordered the organisation to compensate Australian customers who purchased faulty Toyota vehicles.

Around 264,000 Toyota Hilux, Fortuner and Prado vehicles sold in Australia between October 2015 and April 2020 were found to have faulty diesel particulate filters which the court ruled caused a 17.5 per cent in the vehicle’s value at the time they were sold.

The issue regards the vehicle in question emitting smoke which can be exacerbated by a vehicle being driven only in stop-start conditions with no chance to ‘burn off’ the system.

Average compensation payments of $10,500 AUD ($11,558 NZD) per vehicle is expected meaning Toyota could be facing total compensation costs of more than $2.7 billion AUD ($2.97 billion NZD).

Toyota New Zealand has already committed to fixing the same fault that may be found in the 25,000 affected vehicles it sold between 2015 and 2020.

Toyota Motor Corp Australia stated that the appeal lodged with the Federal Court included “challenges to the factual and legal basis for the award of damages,” arguing that many of the class-action plaintiffs did not experience issues associated with the faulty filters, such as substantial white smoke or a reduction in engine power.